A spa that for years has only served females has been told it must now admit trans women who still have male genitals if they claim to be women, a judge has ruled.
The womens only spa, where nudity is compulsory, has been ordered to admit pre-op trans women with penises after an activist complained when the owner tried to ban him saying the spa was for biologicial women only
The Korean Christian spa was described by its owners as being designed based on the belief that “a male and a female should not ordinarily be in each other’s presence while in the nude unless married to each other,” according to a complaint filed by the owners.
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The Mail Online reports: The family-owned spa, which has a branch on the outskirts of Seattle and one in Tacoma, is modeled on Jjimjilbang – sex-segregated bath houses in Korea – and offers monthly memberships and day passes.
Now, a Washington District Court has dismissed the lawsuit filed by the spa and upheld the original ruling by the WSHRC. The Pacific Northwest state is one of several Dem-run areas where trans people are permitted to use facilities which align with their gender without question.
In her judgement, District Court Judge Barbara Jacobs Rothstein upheld the ruling made by the WSHRC and said that the measures taken to the prevent the spa from having a female-only policy had been lawful.
In the initial complaint to the commission, Wilvich said she was a transgender woman who was ‘biologically male’ and had not undergone sex reassignment surgery.
Wilvich alleged that she had gone to the spa in January 2020 in search of a service but was discriminated against.
She claims that Olympus Spa told her that ‘transgender women without surgery are not welcome because it could make other customers and staff uncomfortable.’
In March 2021, the WSHRC had served the spa owner Myoon Woon Lee and the spa’s President Sun Lee with a Notice of Complaint of Discrimination.
The commission asked them to respond to the claims made by Wilvich, with Sun Lee releasing a statement standing by their decision.
Lee explained that Olympus was a family-owned ‘women’s Korean traditional health spa’ and noted that nudity was required for certain treatments.
He wrote: ‘We firmly believe it is essential for the safety, legal protection, and well-being of our customers and employees that we maintain adherence to this adaptation of a females-only rule.’
Lee also provided an education on the traditions of Jjimjilbang, which are large sex-segregated bath houses in Korea.
He concluded their response by saying that the spa was ‘willing to consider a review of [its] current biological females only policy’.
The caveat to that Lee said was that ‘we are unwilling to remake the ‘jjimjilbang” given they had ‘worked so hard over many years to build and preserve, simply for the sake of promoting gender neutrality.’
The two also said that they are both Christian, and cited their faith as reasons as to why they did not wish to accommodate males in the facility.
The spa disputed the Wilvich’s claims, asserting they had no documentation showing she had ever applied to enter the facility.
But the WSHRC upheld their ruling, and offered the spa a Pre-Finding Settlement agreement to avoid prosecution.
The Pre-Finding Settlement required the spa to remove all references to ‘biological women’ on their site, and provide staff with ‘inclusivity’ training.
